My daughter Kenna learned to ride her bike last year with out training wheels. She was only 3 years and 10 months old. We were in Venice Beach California on vacation. She was good at it. She took to it right away. I put my hands on the back of her seat, she started to peddle and away she went. It was a big deal. I was so proud of her.

To celebrate we went for a family bike ride. That didn’t go so well. Although she had the physically ability to ride her bike, her mind wasn’t quite there yet. She’d panic when it came to turn or stop. She would freak out if people would get too close to her. Needless to say the celebration ride was less than enjoyable and although she rode her bike the rest of the vacation, it wasn’t with out incident.

When we got home, she asked us to put the training wheels back on. We didn’t, BUT she wasn’t much into riding her bike the rest of the summer, trading it for a scooter or her younger sisters stryder.

This spring everything has changed. Her mental capabilities caught up with her physical abilities.

Now we have a blast. We go for bike rides at least twice a day. She rides off the curbs, over dirt mounds, and peddles as fast as she can. She loves it and so do I. It’s fun riding bikes with her.

I see this in sales and in business all the time.

It’s not enough to have the ability or the skill or even the talent. The mind is required too. Unlike kids, who’s physical ability or talent gets ahead of their developing minds, in adults it’s just plain stubbornness or worse a bad attitude.

If your wondering why that super talented sales guy continually eeks out quota or why that brilliant project manager can never seem to get the project right, it may not be their capabilities, it might be in their head.

Skill, talent, capability are all critical but if the mind isn’t coming along for the ride too, it won’t matter.

The mind matters.